


Transitions

by spaze_cat



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Multi, One-Shots, Turtlecest, tcest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:10:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7984606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaze_cat/pseuds/spaze_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of one-shots based on each letter of the alphabet. Starts with one word (stated at the beginning of the chapter) and the story progresses until it hits the next word (revealed at the end of the chapter).</p><p>Will contain turtlecest, multiple pairings, possibly gruesome gore (though I never kill turtles... permanently), and just a bunch of random stuff that could be very sad or very cool, or maybe both? Idk yet, so we'll see. I'll put warnings before a chapter if it's warranted, and I'll update the tags as necessary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transitions

_A is for Alien_

\---

Donnie prodded the specimen with the end of his pen. He knew it wasn’t sterile, but with how many tests he’d already performed on this thing, he didn’t worry too much about contamination.

The once pink flesh of the creature was now slightly brown in appearance, almost as if it’d gone through some sort of oxidation process. The poor thing’s skin was also riddled with small cuts and burns and was missing several chunks of itself. Those pieces of it were currently residing in carefully labeled Petri dishes a few feet away from the examination table. Some were stored in cold containers, others left in the open, and still others had been placed above Bunsen burners within little white crucibles.

Donatello leaned back in his worn office chair and eyed the thing from further away. The distance didn’t help.

He sighed and reached for his mug of hot coffee, but found that it was no longer hot. He stood with the mug to fetch some more, but paused before leaving his lab. He turned back to stare at the thing he’d been studying so arduously for the past few hours, and for the briefest of moments he allowed himself to see beyond the cold, dead specimen. It wasn’t just a dead animal he’d found nearly flattened on the side of the road, after all. This creature was once alive; he’d seen it live.

He had also seen it die.

Though it wasn’t his bo staff that dealt the final blow, Donnie still felt the pain of the unnecessary death, could feel it weighing on his own shoulders just as much as it did his brothers. This creature had attacked them, not with claws nor teeth, but with sophisticated technology. It had built androids with the sole intent to harm and dominate, and by all meanings of the definition, it was evil.

But it didn’t have to die.

He watched steam condense within the glass orb of the coffee pot as he contemplated yesterday. Of all the turtles, Mikey had been the one to kill it, though of course he’d never meant for his strike to be lethal. Splinter had made sure enough to teach them the value of life and the strength in mercy since before they could even perform their katas properly. This needless loss of life was like a slap in the face to them all, and each of them was so harshly reminded of their roles in this family, and how easily the world could shift such precarious balances.

Though none of them had since talked about the incident, Donnie knew them all enough to have some idea what they were feeling right about now.

Raphael was probably standing before a mirror observing his muscles, carving each bulge and give of his flesh into his memory so that he could make sure to never replicate Mikey’s mistake – a mistake he’d always feared making. He was larger than the others, and was that much more likely to accidentally hit just a little too hard. And now he knew it; one hit just a little too hard was all it took for his honor to slip through his fingers.

Leonardo might’ve been hiding his face in his hands, as if by doing so he would turn off his burden of leadership just long enough to process what happened without questioning himself as well. _Mikey made a mistake_ , he told himself, over and over like a mantra. _Mikey made a mistake, and none of us knew better. There was no way to prevent this_. And then, because he can only let go of that burden of his for so long, he delved right back into his mountain of responsibility. _It was my fault_ , he enforced, hoisting yet another weight up onto his shoulders with such fragile yet elegantly balanced determination.

Michelangelo was the most effected, yet Donnie couldn’t see Mikey blaming himself. In Donnie’s mind’s eye, Mikey stared down at the hands that took something so precious away and he felt shame, and a different kind of weight on his shoulders, but he was wise enough to understand he was not at fault. And he’s always been that way, hasn’t he? The least intellectual of the four, but by far the wisest. He’s always understood these deep feelings, and Donnie was sure that even now, Mikey was expertly breaking his grief down into manageable chunks in order to deal with this mess of a situation.

Donnie’s coffee was ready. He took one last look at the dark, silent lair and let out a sigh before heading back to his lab.

And him. What did Donnie think of all this? Well, that was a mystery. Donnie felt grief, pity, and he felt the hollowness now settling within them all, but he’s always accepted the concept of mortality, and death tends to become a little less impactful when you acknowledge early on that, well, shit happens.

Donnie reentered his lab and promptly stood rigidly to attention, the mug crashing to the floor and his other hand flying to his gaping mouth. All of his thoughts of death went quiet in his mind, suddenly replaced by fear and the strangest sense of joy he’d ever felt.

Mikey was not a murderer after all.

The creature was gone.

\---

_A is also for Alive._

 


End file.
